We take a look at the international break in our preview of week 10.
Weekly Football Preview – Week 10
The time has come for another International window which means European Football takes a break from its usual weekly schedule. Most teams will play two qualification matches in the coming days with a number of friendlies also lined up.
We are well on the way to deciding who will qualify for next summer’s big football happening, and there are already a number of surprises. Whilst nothing has been decided yet, one of the best performances in qualification has come from Scotland, who have five wins from five matches and are six points ahead of Spain in their group. The only other team with a perfect record in the qualifiers are Portugal, who have eighteen points from their six matches to date. Amongst the underperforming teams who risk failing to make it to Germany are Iceland, Poland and Sweden.
The first set of matches takes place on Thursday and there are fixtures every day up to Tuesday when the players leave their International setups and return to their clubs in order to prepare for the next round of domestic matches that weekend.
Thursday Matches
We start proceedings on Thursday with the first match being Latvia against Armenia at 6 pm. Later in the evening, there are seven more matches to be played with the likes of the Czech Republic, Croatia and Poland all in action. An interesting clash is Croatia versus Turkey with the two teams tied on ten points at the top of Group D. The highlight of the day is without a doubt Spain versus Scotland. The home team will be looking for revenge for the defeat inflicted on them by Scotland and they will know that a win will take them three points behind Scotland with a game in hand, so that would blow Group A wide open. Scotland did lose their last International match, a friendly against old rivals England in September, but prior to that they have been on an excellent run and that includes the 2-0 win over Spain in March.
Friday Matches
There are a number of important clashes on Friday evening with Netherlands against France being the biggest of them all. France have a six point lead at the top of Group B, but the Netherlands, in second spot, have a game in hand. A win for the home team here, therefore, will mean that top spot in Group B is wide open again and this clash is always a top match with some of Europe’s top players involved on both sides. The early match on Friday is Estonia against Azerbaijan, not really a match for the neutral to get excited about. Another big match is Austria versus Belgium with these two tied on thirteen points at the top of group F and both teams are undefeated in their last five matches going into this. Portugal will look to carry on their 100% record when they host Slovakia and the other games on Friday involve the likes of Iceland, Ireland and Bosnia. England don’t play a qualification match but they will host Australia in a friendly encounter at Wembley.
Saturday Matches
Seven matches are scheduled from the qualifiers on Saturday, starting with Northern Ireland against San Marino and Ukraine against North Macedonia. Later in the day, Bulgaria will host Lithuania in one of the remaining matches. Italy will be confident of getting the better of minnows Malta, a team who have only managed to score once in their five matches so far and the final match of the day sees Hungary host Serbia, another meeting of the two top teams, this time in Group G. In terms of friendly matches, the highlight of the day is the USA against Germany with the away side looking to build on their 2-1 friendly win over France that ended a very poor run of form.
Sunday Matches
Most of the European giants are not in action on Sunday so it’s left to some of the lesser teams to entertain us. The exception to this is Spain. The Czech Republic and Switzerland will both be expecting home wins against Faroe Islands and Belarus respectively and Poland will be desperately hoping for three points at home to Moldova to keep their hopes of qualification alive. Wales at home to Croatia has the potential to be an interesting match with the home team surely needing all three points to keep their hopes alive, especially since Turkey are likely to claim all three at home to Latvia.
Monday Matches
The highlight of the day on Monday is Belgium against Sweden, although the visiting team look all but out of it. Belgium will be hoping to cement their place at the top of Group F with another three points in this one. Portugal are away from home in Bosnia and Ireland should pick up a win at minnows Gibraltar. The Netherlands are another big team playing away from home, in Greece and they too will expect to return home with all three points. The remaining Monday matches are Iceland against Liechtenstein and Luxembourg versus Slovakia.
Tuesday Matches
The last set of fixtures in this international round is played on Tuesday and the highlight is without a doubt England versus Italy. England have an almost perfect record so far in qualification, their only dropped points coming against Ukraine in their last match. England were comfortable winners in Italy back in March and will be hoping to back that up with another win here but the visiting team have a new manager and will know that they need something from this match if they want to hold on to second spot in the table. At the same time, Malta host Ukraine in the same group. There are five other clashes, including Serbia meeting Montenegro and Lithuania hosting Hungary.
Thursday 12/10
Croatia vs Turkey
This is a very important clash in Group D with both these two teams tied on ten points at the top of the table. Croatia have home advantage and will be playing in front of a full stadium of supporters who will be pushing their team to reach the finals of next summer’s competition. Both teams are unbeaten and assured of at least a playoff spot but automatic qualification is what both teams are after. Croatia has a good record against Turkey, they have only lost one of the last seven meetings with the previous three matches ending in draws. Croatia have an impressive recent home record, losing only once on home soil since November 2020. That run of results means that fans are enthusiastic about their chances in this match. They also have a remarkable home record in European qualification matches, they have never lost since first joining back in 1993.
Turkey will be looking for revenge in this match as Croatia beat them at home in the reverse fixture in March. Despite that, they are joint top but have played a game more than their hosts. They will be hoping for a third consecutive appearance at the biggest tournament of the continent, and they have a new manager at the helm, Italian Vincenzo Montella. This is the first match for their new head coach but he can take encouragement from the fact that Turkey have a very good away record, losing just one of their last eleven on the road.
Croatia have a strong defensive record at home and have not conceded more than 1 goal in a match since the year 2000. These two nations have met ten times with Croatia managing four wins and Turkey just the two, including one on penalties in the 2008 edition of the tournament.
Spain vs Scotland
Spain will have revenge on their mind heading into this match and it could prove to be a tough evening for Scotland. The big favourites to win this group were shocked when they were soundly beaten by a competitive Scotland team, the final score being 2-0 to the hosts. Since then, Spain have won four in a row and scored thirteen goals in the process. A win here is a must for Spain, so the pressure is on. Spain have an impressive home record, winning 24 consecutive European qualifiers, and 16 of those were accompanied by a clean sheet.
Scotland will be well aware of the task that faces them here but they will know that even a draw from this match will mean they will have one foot in Germany. Should they manage a sixth straight win in the qualifiers here, they will end Spain’s superb home record. Scotland are unbeaten in nine competitive matches but this will certainly be a tough ask for them and the last time Scotland won in Spain was back in 1963. Scott McTominay will be the one to watch for the visiting team as he not only scored both goals in Scotland’s win in March but also came off the bench to score two late goals for Manchester United last weekend.
Spain have certainly had the better of this matchup, winning five of the last ten. Scotland have two wins in that same time period.
Friday 13/10
Netherlands vs France
It has not been an easy few months for the Netherlands, who were eliminated in the semi-finals of the Nations League by Croatia and find themselves four points behind France in Group B of the qualifying. Their last two results were better though, as they got the better of both Greece and the Republic of Ireland to keep their hopes of qualification in their own hands. A win at home to leaders France will move them to within three points of their opponents and they will also be motivated by the opportunity to make up for their 4-0 defeat in the opening round of this group. They do have a strong record against France on home soil at least, winning eight of the last thirteen played.
France’s last match was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of neighbours Germany in a friendly, so they will be hoping to avoid it being two successive losses at the hands of nations that they border. Their record in 2023 is perfect apart from that loss to Germany, with five wins, and they will be hoping to make this a sixth and guarantee their spot at the top of the group.
The Netherlands have won three of the last ten meetings with France winning six, so the visitors have the clear advantage overall in recent times.
England vs Australia
England will warm up for the clash with Italy with this friendly on Friday evening. They will understandably go into this as strong favourites but the rivalry that exists between England and Australia across various sports will fire up both teams as well as the crowd. Surprisingly, these two teams have only met twice on the football field in the past century. England’s attention will be on the game against Italy a few days later, but manager Gareth Southgate will certainly look to this game to experiment with a few ideas, give some game time to a few players and make sure everything is ready for the clash with Italy, a match which should England win, will guarantee their place in Germany next summer.
Australia will look back to 2003 as a reminder of their only victory over England, a 3-1 win that lives on in their memories. Australia’s relative success at the last tournament, back in November/December 22, came as a surprise and they took the opportunity to try to organise some more high profile matches, so as to generate more interest in the national team as well as to help prepare their players for upcoming tournaments.
History cannot give us much information as these two have only clashed once on the football field, with both sides claiming one win each.
Austria vs Belgium
Group F is a straight shootout between these two nations, with both equal on points at the top of the group with thirteen points each. The top two qualify automatically but winning the group is still an important target for both these teams. A win for Austria will cement their place at their third successive European tournament and they have won all three of their home matches so far. This is their toughest assignment of course but the home crowd will be optimistic that this represents as good an opportunity as any to record their first win over Belgium since 1959.
The reverse fixture ended in a draw in Brussels, a result that represents the only two dropped points for both of these teams so far. Belgium are currently ranked fifth in the world and have had no problem in scoring, as they have managed thirteen goals so far. Belgium’s ‘golden generation’ will realise that their time is running out to achieve something on the international stage. This can be regarded as their sixth major tournament together and despite often being one of the favourites going into tournaments, it has never quite happened for them so far
These two nations have met five times so far with all but one of the meetings ending in a draw. Belgium have one win to their name, a 2-0 success back in 2011.
